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Non-destructive Testing Methods for Composite Materials

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Composites".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 11213

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Renaldas Raišutis

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Guest Editor

Ultrasound Research Institute, Kaunas University of Technology, K. Barsausko st. 59, LT-51423 Kaunas, Lithuania
Interests: power systems; renewables; uncertainty analysis; digital signal processing; smart materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Luca De Marchi

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Guest Editor

Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering (DEI), University of Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Interests: signal processing; NDT; ultrasound; SHM; sensors; lamb waves; guided wave propagation; damage detection; acoustic emissions
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the composites manufacturing industry has grown considerably, with worldwide developments and applications of new 3D printed and dissimilar-materials-based composite structures. These lightweight, multi-layered, and complex geometry composite materials and constructions are being used in a wide range of industries, such as transport, renewable energy, aerospace, construction, sports, health, and rehabilitation. However, the lack of quality control during manufacturing and intensive daily operational conditions, fatigue, vibrations, and various defects developed during use lead to the risk of structure failure. To meet safety and economical requirements, such structures must be tested against various internal defects (e.g., disbonds, delamination, etc.). The aim of this Special Issue is to attract developments of non-destructive testing (NDT) methods in the following areas:

Developments and applications of NDT methods and techniques for inspection of composites;
Developments and applications of structure health monitoring (SHM) methods for composite constructions;
Developments and applications of quality control methods during manufacturing of composites;
On-site and in-service inspection of composite structures;
Developments and applications of ultrasonic methods for inspection of composites;
Developments and applications of X-ray methods for inspection of composites;
Developments and applications of thermography methods for inspection of composites;
Developments and applications of acoustic emission methods for inspection of composites;
Predictive maintenance of composite constructions;
Probability of detection; and
Detection of defects based on artificial intelligence.

Dr. Renaldas Raišutis
Dr. Luca De Marchi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

Non-destructive testing (NDT) of composites
Structure health monitoring (SHM) of composites
Quality control during manufacturing of composites
On-site and in-service inspection of composite structures
Ultrasonic methods for inspection of composites
X-ray methods for inspection of composites
Thermography methods for inspection of composites
Acoustic emission methods for inspection of composites
Predictive maintenance of composite constructions
Probability of detection
Artificial intelligence

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 33259 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reconstruction of Lamb Wave Dispersion Curves in Different Objects Using Signals Measured at Two Different Distances

by Lina Draudvilienė, Olgirdas Tumšys and Renaldas Raišutis

Materials 2021, 14(22), 6990; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14226990 - 18 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1511

Abstract

The possibilities of an effective method of two adjacent signals are investigated for the evaluation of Lamb waves phase velocity dispersion in objects of different types, namely polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film and wind turbine blade (WTB). A new algorithm based on peaks of spectrum magnitude is presented and used for the comparison of the results. To use the presented method, the wavelength-dependent parameter is proposed to determine the optimal distance range, which is necessary in selecting two signals for analysis. It is determined that, in the range of 0.17–0.5 wavelength where

δ_{c_{p h}}

is not higher than 5%, it is appropriate to use in the case of an A₀ mode in PVC film sample. The smallest error of 1.2%, in the distance greater than 1.5 wavelengths, is obtained in the case of the S₀ mode. Using the method of two signals analysis for PVC sample, the phase velocity dispersion curve of the A₀ mode is reconstructed using selected distances x₁ = 70 mm and x₂ = 70.5 mm between two spatial positions of a receiving transducer with a mean relative error

δ_{c_{p h}} = 2.8 %

, and for S₀ mode, x₁ = 61 mm and x₂ = 79.7 mm with

δ_{c_{p h}} = 0.99 %

. In the case of the WTB sample, the range of 0.1–0.39 wavelength, where

δ_{c_{p h}}

is not higher than 3%, is determined as the optimal distance range between two adjacent signals. The phase velocity dispersion curve of the A₀ mode is reconstructed in two frequency ranges: first, using selected distances x₁ = 225 mm and x₂ = 231 mm with mean relative error

δ_{c_{p h}} = 0.3 %

; and second, x₁ = 225 mm and x₂ = 237 mm with

δ_{c_{p h}} = 1.3 %

. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-destructive Testing Methods for Composite Materials)

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23 pages, 6794 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of PZT Ceramic Sensors for Composite Structure Monitoring Using Harmonic Excitation Signals and Bayesian Classification Approach

by Michal Dziendzikowski, Mateusz Heesch, Jakub Gorski, Krzysztof Dragan and Ziemowit Dworakowski

Materials 2021, 14(19), 5468; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14195468 - 22 Sep 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1557

Abstract

The capabilities of ceramic PZT transducers, allowing for elastic wave excitation in a broad frequency spectrum, made them particularly suitable for the Structural Health Monitoring field. In this paper, the approach to detecting impact damage in composite structures based on harmonic excitation of PZT sensor in the so-called pitch–catch PZT network setup is studied. In particular, the repeatability of damage indication for similar configuration of two independent PZT networks is analyzed, and the possibility of damage indication for different localization of sensing paths between pairs of PZT sensors with respect to damage locations is investigated. The approach allowed for differentiation between paths sensitive to the transmission mode of elastic wave interaction and sensitive reflection mode. In addition, a new universal Bayesian approach to SHM data classification is provided in the paper. The defined Bayesian classifier is based on asymptotic properties of Maximum Likelihood estimators and Principal Component Analysis for orthogonal data transformation. Properties of the defined algorithm are compared to the standard nearest-neighbor classifier based on the acquired experimental data. It was shown in the paper that the proposed approach is characterized by lower false-positive indications in comparison with the nearest-neighbor algorithm. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-destructive Testing Methods for Composite Materials)

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22 pages, 11944 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of Ultrasonic Non-Contact Air-Coupled Techniques for Characterization of Impact-Type Defects in Pultruded GFRP Composites

by Aadhik Asokkumar, Elena Jasiūnienė, Renaldas Raišutis and Rymantas Jonas Kažys

Materials 2021, 14(5), 1058; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14051058 - 24 Feb 2021

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 2632

Abstract

This article compares different air-coupled ultrasonic testing methods to characterize impact-type defects in a pultruded quasi-isotropic glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) composite plate. Using the air-coupled transducers, comparisons among three methods were performed, namely, bulk-wave through transmission, single-side access using guided waves, and ultrasonic-guided wave tomography. The air coupled through transmission technique can determine the size and shape of impact-type defects with a higher resolution, but with the consequence of time consumption and, more importantly, the necessity of access to both sides of the sample. The guided wave technique on the other hand, allows a single-side inspection and is relatively fast. It can be used to determine the size of the defect using ultrasonic B-scan, but the exact shape of the defect will be compromised. Thus, in this article, to determine the shape of the defect, application of the parallel beam tomographic reconstruction technique using guided Lamb waves is demonstrated. Furthermore, a numerical finite element simulation was performed to study the effects of guided wave propagation in the composite sample and interaction with the internal defect. Lastly, the results from the experiments of different techniques were compared according to possibilities of defect sizing and determination of its shape. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-destructive Testing Methods for Composite Materials)

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14 pages, 11848 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Process-Induced Distortions Characterization of MBWK Fabric Reinforced Composite Helmet Shell

by He Xiang, Yaming Jiang, Yexiong Qi and Jialu Li

Materials 2020, 13(13), 2983; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13132983 - 04 Jul 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1979

Abstract

In order to characterize the process-induced distortions of 3D thin shell composites with complex shape, the multilayered biaxial weft knitted (MBWK) fabric reinforced high-performance composite helmet was selected as the research object, and the 3D laser scanning machine was used to scan the helmet surface, then the 3D scanning data was compared with the CAD model to evaluate the deformation. The results and discussion indicated that the conventional method was workable, but the speed of convergence was slow and the calculation results were easy to drop into local optimization. According to detailed analysis, a measurement method focusing on the principle of “Feature Distance” was developed. The measurement results shown that this method can not only give accurate results, but also reduce working procedure and greatly save the computing resources, which is proved to be a feasible approach for the deformation measurement foundation of 3D thin shell textile composites. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-destructive Testing Methods for Composite Materials)

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13 pages, 5201 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of Dual Focused Ultrasonic Phased Array Transducer in Two Orthogonal Cross-Sections for Inspection of Multi-Layered Composite Components of the Aircraft Fuselage

by Renaldas Raišutis and Olgirdas Tumšys

Materials 2020, 13(7), 1689; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13071689 - 04 Apr 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2476

Abstract

Our previous studies have shown that the application of the proposed technique of a dual focused ultrasonic beam in two orthogonal cross-sections in passive (elevation) and active (azimuth) apertures of linear ultrasonic phased array transducer (ULPAT) enhances the 3D spatial resolution in the case of the inspection of conventional defects (flat bottom holes) or measurement of thickness of multi-layered metal composites. The objective of this work is to apply the proposed technique to enhance the spatial resolution of the ULPAT in the cases of detection and sizing demonstration of internal defects possessing spatially complex geometry, and during the inspection of defective multi-layered thin composite components (e.g., GLARE) of the aircraft fuselage. The specially prepared aluminium specimen possessing an internal defect of complicated geometry (crescent-shaped) was investigated. The simulation results and experiments demonstrate the resolution enhancement, higher amplitude of the reflections (e.g., 2.5 times or +8 dB) and spatial improvement in the defect detection even in the case of the non-perpendicular incidence of ultrasonic waves to the complex geometry surface of the internal defect. During the experiments, the multi-layered GFRP-metal based composite sample GLARE 3-3/2 was investigated in the case of the single-side access to the surface of the sample. The internal artificial delamination type defect of 25 mm was detected with a higher accuracy. Compared to the limitations of conventional ULPAT, the relative error (32%) (at the −6 dB level) of lateral defect dimensions estimation was completely reduced. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-destructive Testing Methods for Composite Materials)

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